NHL playoffs: Brace yourself for ‘upper-body injuries’

Teams take advantage of NHL policies on disclosure designed to protect vulnerable players

Ice workers watch Vancouver Canucks Daniel Sedin work out prior to the team’s practice at Rogers Arena in Vancouver April 9, 2012. The Canucks face the Los Angeles Kings April 11, 2012 at home in the first round of the Western Conference in the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.

Photograph by: Ric Ernst
, PNG

Just under 60 players on National Hockey League playoff teams are on the infirmary list right now, but the policy on disclosure of injuries is purposely loose to protect vulnerable players, especially those returning to play from the sick bay.

That’s why some injuries, on the eve of the Stanley Cup playoffs, are being described only as “undisclosed.”

Teams aren’t supposed to give false or misleading information about injuries, but at the same time, they’re “granted broad discretion with regard to terminology,” said Frank Brown, an NHL vice-president at the league’s New York head office.

Of the 16 teams that will play in the first round, Philadelphia is the most injury-plagued, with nine players out, including one listed as having nothing more than a “cold.” The Flyers matchup against the Penguins is indeed the one with the most injuries; Pittsburgh has four injuries currently listed.

According to TSN (The Sports Network), which supplies the most current and comprehensive list of NHL injuries, the San Jose Sharks matchup against the St. Louis Blues has the fewest injuries — only one, an undisclosed injury to Sharks centre Torrey Mitchell. He’s listed as questionable for the first game.

The Vancouver Canucks-Los Angeles Kings first round series has a total of eight injuries — three for the Kings and five for the Canucks. Mason Raymond, who missed the last game for personal reasons (his wife just had a baby) is listed as probable for the first game of the series on Wednesday night. Daniel Sedin, who missed nine games after suffering a concussion on March 21, is also listed as a probable starter for the first game.

Although it may appear to keen hockey observers that teams are being cagier and more circumspect than ever about sharing specific information on injuries, Brown said there have been no recent changes to the NHL policy injury reporting.

“When an injury occurs in a [regular season or playoff] game, a club spokesperson must notify the media of the approximate location, nature, and severity of an injury as soon as possible, except to the extent that the club determines that such disclosure may jeopardize the player’s physical well-being if and when the player returns to play, in which case the club is entitled to provide a more general overview of the player’s injury status,” he said in an email.

“The club must also announce whether the player is expected to return to play in the game in which the injury occurred. At no time should a club give false or misleading information regarding a player injury to the media,” he added.

The attention being paid to injury reporting, protection of players and potential for targeting of certain players has come into sharp focus because of a “bounty system” scandal in the National Football League in the U.S. The NFL has penalized the New Orleans Saints for its cash bonuses to players who targeted opponents and injured them enough to knock them out of games or even to the sidelines.

The huge leeway in injury reporting by NHL teams explains why, after Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa missed four games recently, his time off was described as being necessary for maintenance, not for any particular injury. Indeed, in one dressing room interview, he deftly dodged the whole question about what his problem was, gamely using the words maintenance, maintain, and maintaining no less than six times in a brief exchange. The video of that interview can be viewed at vancouversun.com.

In a subsequent interview, Canucks associate coach Rick Bowness used the very same language, using the word maintenance twice to explain Bieksa’s absence. By not identifying the ailing body part, the Canucks were protecting Bieksa from attempts by the opposition to re-injure the sore part of his anatomy.

As teams go deeper in the playoffs, head coaches will become the only ones sanctioned to make comments about injuries. They will undoubtedly get more and more creative in their responses to media queries about injuries.

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Ice workers watch Vancouver Canucks Daniel Sedin work out prior to the team’s practice at Rogers Arena in Vancouver April 9, 2012. The Canucks face the Los Angeles Kings April 11, 2012 at home in the first round of the Western Conference in the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.

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